ae\ AZcy'cc \867 NEW WORK BY MR. SWINBURNE. Will shortly be published, in 8vo. William Blake: Poet and Artist. Essays on Life and Works of. With Illustrations in coloured fac-simile. “ He i8 known to have in the press an elaborate study upon the poet and . Blake, a subject than which none requires more delicate or sharp manipv more keenness or specialty of sympathy, or more boldness of estimate an< ment. To judge from his own powers in the poetic art, and from his Es Byron, Mr. Swinburne will' supply all these requisites in a measure hardly\ rivalled.” — Rossetti’s Criticism . ROSSETTI’S CRITICISM. Fcap. 8vo., cloth, 3s. 6d. Swinburne’s Poems and Ballads: a Criticism. William Michael Rossetti. [“ Let us for a moment stoop to the arbitration of popular breath. 1 assume that Homer was a drunkard, that Virgil was a flatterer, that Horace coward, that Tasso was a madman, observe in what a ludicrous chaos the in tions of real or fictitious crime have been confused in the contemporary calu against poetry and poets.” — Shelley . ] “ An accomplished and gifted critic has undertaken the defence. ... A difficult thing has seldom been better done. . . . Re writes about poet poetry with a subtle apprehensiveness and discrimination which give to his rfe ; a real critical value. The poems of Mr. Swinburne are a fact in English lite\: As an able and well-weighed effort to assist and hasten the calm judgment 1 future, we think Mr. Rossetti’s criticism deserves praise. Mr. Swinburn remarkable and original poet. . . . His position as an artist is beyond d or even attack.” — Saturday Review , November 17th, 1866. “ Mr. Rossetti has had a difficult task to perform, but he has performec the very best spirit. The critic writes with great candour and fairness; I not written in the manner of a partisan. We cordially agree with all the 8 says, on literary grounds, of the power of Mr. Swinburne’s genius .” — L Review , December 1st, 1866. OAK ST. HDSF Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 https://archive.org/details/prometheusboundo00aesc_0 THE PROMETHEUS BOUND OF FESCHYLUS. TRANSLATED IN THE ORIGINAL METRES. BY C. B. CAYLEY, B.A. TRANSLATOR OF DANTE’S “DIVINE COMEDY,” ETC. folium carmen ad Italos Deduxisse modos. LONDON : JOHN CAMDEN HOTTEN, PICCADILLY. 1867. Tom Turner Collection sa\ A *31^ .^.c \^G>7 London : Wyman & Sons , Printers , (9^/2 Lincoln s- Inn Fields , W 7 C. 8>H‘ ■ I M7 PREFACE. J SHOULD not have attempted a work which has co been so many times translated as the “ Pro- metheus Bound ” of H^schylus, and that by such able hands as the late Mrs. Barrett Browning’s and Pro- fessor Blackie’s, and more recently Mrs. Webster’s, if it had not been one of my principal objects to do something towards familiarizing English readers, and partly even classical students, through the medium of a language they pronounce accurately and confidently, with the stately forms and the scientific principles of the Greek versification. Of these forms, I believe V the dramatic metres to be even more likely to reward the attention of imitators than is the hexameter of epic ^poetry. The iambic trimeter, in particular, which is usually employed in the tragic dialogue, has so much \ffinity and historical connexion with our own blank verse, that the remarkable differences which separate it therefrom can only be exhibited by the most ac~ curate composition, in which one must rigidly dis- 6 PREFACE. tinguish those elements of quantity and accent which have been so ruthlessly confounded by most of the poets and critics who have patronized the “ ac- centual ” hexameter. Feeling this, although I have taken pains to combine the accents of my lines in modes partly regular and familiar to the English ear, I have yet endeavoured to realize the metres of my original by the strictest consideration of the quantities of the words I have employed. I have not, however, added to the present little volume any formal analysis of the metres used, because I judge it better to leave these in a first experiment to the ear of the uncritical reader, and to the insight which the scholar may readily command from other sources. I will only re- quest the former not to condemn my versification without a little practice in reading it : for it is habit that makes every measure distinct, from even a nursery rhyme ; and before a measure has some dis- tinctness, the ear is seldom satisfied with it. On the other hand I will request the scholar not to be un- fairly prejudiced (if he should condescend to scan any of my lines) by the apparent anomalies which inevitably arise from an orthography not sym- metrically representing the sounds of the language. In particular, as the metrical syllable runs usually from vowel to vowel, and may be rendered long, PREFACE . 7 not only by containing a long vowel, but by ending on a combination of consonants in one or two words (thus lip is short, lips and leap long ; but lip before stained is long also), it must be remembered that we often write two consonants where we pronounce one only — as would is pronounced with d for Id, and a simple short vowel ; so the ll in folly is a different thing from ll in coolly , or in the Italian or Latin Apollo: ;^in sing represents a simple sound as much as ph or th. To enumerate more such instances would be tedious and superfluous ; but readers may see my paper in the Transactions of the Philological Society for 1862 ; to which some reference has been made in Professor Blackie’s “ Homer and the Iliad.” # I remark more willingly here, that the advantages of the iambic trimeter over our common blank verse are perhaps most prominent in those sharp theatrical encounters in which every line makes a repartee in itself, which can hardly be expressed conveniently if the ordinary compass of the measure be reduced from twelve to ten syllables. As to the lyric passages, the corruptions or difficulties of the text of the * Vol. i., diss. 10. I must add that every language requires its own rules for elisions, and for that shortening of long vowels before the hiatus, which is in some cases more agreeable to the English ear. 8 PREFACE. “ Prometheus ” have sometimes deterred me from rigidly following the original versification : but I have endeavoured everywhere to preserve the dominant movement of the passage, so beautifully varied as it everywhere is to express eagerness, suspense, or other emotions. The more equable movement of the anapaestic passages is sometimes very closely approached in English rhyme, as in Lord Byron’s “ On a throne of rocks in a robe of clouds.” Manfred. If I am told, after all, that the metres I have used are not sufficiently national, I am disposed to answer that the musical laws of verse have no indissoluble connection with the grammar or vocabulary of par- ticular languages. To translate a poet is, as it were, to teach him our idiom ; but we should not presume to confine his ideas of style and versification by the standards we are accustomed to respect among our own countrymen or contemporaries. Nor is the history of literature deficient in instances of authors, and schools of authors, who have very successfully realized these principles. Our Chaucer — a patri- arch of translators and imitators, though he had no eminent invention or originality — introduced several of the forms of verse to which we are now most PREFACE . 9 attached, from France and Italy : he would have indeed made poor work of the “ Romance of the Rose,” and of the tale of Troilus, had he reduced them to the alliterative doggrel to which our country- men had been accustomed from the times of the Anglo-Saxon kings. Yet the attempt would have been hardly more unsatisfactory than that of doing the Iliad into English in a ballad metre somewhat resembling the “ Rhyme of Sir Thopas.” The poetry of Spain received much of its highest culture from the writers who introduced the well-accented Italian verse in place of the scarcely rhythmical octo-syllabics of the native balladists. Above all, the Romans adopted from Greece the hexameters and all the forms of lyric and elegiac verse they so brilliantly cultivated ; nevertheless the two languages, Greek and Latin, differed nearly as much in the elements of their prosodial structure as Greek and English do. On the other hand, it has been maintained in very sweeping terms that the classical poetry cannot be uttered like verse without a conventional accentu- ation, or else without the aid of singing and a musical accompaniment. The fact is little felt, that quanti- tative verse, whether said or sung, has in itself a musical time which our own verse lacks and has to borrow sometimes from the drawling of the singer. 10 PREFACE. The former kind may have needed a few regular accents, but not so many as the line in which there are no regular quantities : even the modern Italian hendecasyllable needs fewer fixed accents than the English heroic verse, which so closely resembles it — most likely because the Italian strong syllables cannot be of such unequal length as the English can. But I do not think the Greeks can have largely tolerated an artificial accentuation in verse, except in proportion as they were prepared for it by the different dialects of the poems with which they were familiar, from Homer’s to Sappho’s, — dialects which are notoriously somewhat atticized and assimilated by the written accents now in use. The mode in which accents may or should be combined in English quantitative verse, appears to me to afford a fair field for careful compromises between the Greek and the modern system : there are also some kinds of verse, — as the hexameter, the sapphic, and the alcaic, in which the prevalent Latin rhythms, however they became so, may fairly claim particular attention. I have not considered it needful to add many notes to this translation ; because the geographical details, which at first sight appear to require some exegesis, have been pronounced by one of the best critics to be founded on many misconceptions, which the time PREFACE . i of ordinary readers would only be wasted in un- ravelling. The readings and interpretations have been selected from two or three editions. I have not in general replaced the Greek proper names by Latin ; but I hope to have committed no incon- sistency by introducing “Jove” and “Jupiter” for “ Zeus,” inasmuch as they are derived from the same root, and less disagreeably mispronounced in English usage. On the substance of the tragedy I will offer no observations, except that I believe some prevalent misconceptions of its religious tendency (it being a fragment and not a complete work) have been very properly noticed and condemned in the translation by Professor Blackie. ARGUMENT. Prometheus, having stolen fire from heaven to relieve the misery of mankind, is bound by the command of Zeus (Jupiter) to a rock in Scythia. He is visited by Oceanus, whose mediation he declines, and'by the Nymphs, his daughters, to whom he declares the wrongs and the ingratitude he has sustained from Jupiter, since made by his help the lord of all, and declares himself master of a secret on which must depend the permanency of the latter’s sovereignty. Last he sees Io, the daughter of Inachus, king of Argos, persecuted with a gad-fly by the jealous wrath of Hera (Juno). He predicts to her the course of her wanderings ; and how he will himself owe his deliverance to one of her posterity (Hercules), the thirteenth from the son whom she will bear to Jupiter in Egypt, and proximately descended from the only one of the fifty Danaides who will not slay her husband. Hermes (Mercury) is then sent by Jupiter to threaten Prometheus with torment by the vulture and otherwise, if he will not reveal his secret, to whom he opposes a resolute defiance. This tragedy was the second of a trilogy, in which the first play was entitled “ Prometheus Fire - bringing,” and which comprised the marriage of the Titan with Hesione. In the third play, “Prometheus Unbound,” the Titan, having been released by the mediation of Hercules, was reconciled to Jupiter ; he then warned the latter against Thetis, who was fated to have a child that should be superior to his own father. It is said that Thetis, in consequence of this prediction, was given in marriage to Peleus, king of the Myrmidones, and that they became the parents of Achilles. DRAMATIS PERSONAE. Strength. Force (a mute). Hephaestus (Vulcan). Prometheus. Oceanus, father-in-law of Prometheus. Io, the beloved of Jupiter. Hermes (Mercury). Chorus of Virgins, daughters of Oceanus. Scene. — The head of a ravine in Scythia, where appears Hephaestus, with Strength and Force, leading Prometheus. PROMETHEUS BOUND. Strength. Here is the furthest margin of the world attain’d : Here is the Scythian pathless and forlorn desert. And it remains, Hephaestus, unto thee to do The work the Sire commandeth, and to fasten up With chains of adamant temper indestructible, Against the rock’s precipitous edge this trespasser. For fire, which is the splendour of thine excellence, Art’s universal origin, he by stealth removed, And gave to mortals: now the crime’s declared to thee For which an atonement by the gods is claim’d from him, That he to Jove’s authority may be taught to fit His tastes, quitting that humour of philanthropy. i6 PROMETHEUS BOUND. Hcphczstus. Ah with sufficing virtue, Force and Strength, to you Jove’s hest arrive th, and is ungainsayable. But I to bind a Power of my kind upon This ill-bewinter’d precipice have no hardihood. Yet must I algates on the work perforce resolve, For with the Father’s order who can dare dally? Thou lofty-thoughted offspring of discreet Themis, Unwilling as I’m unwelcome, I’ve to bind thee here With sturdy brass-links on this hill’s forlorn summit, Where of the language or the shape of man never Shall a glimpse attain thee ; but the sun with blazing heat Thy bodily bloom shall parch up ; and thou shalt alike Welcome the Night’s rich mantle as she dims the world, And every sunrise which the nightly frost repels. And aye the galling misery thou’st to dwell withal, Shall waste thee ; nor begot yet is thy rescuer. Such fruits come of thy humour of philanthropy ; For by divine wrath undeterr’d, thyself divine, Thou didst to man give glory not design’d for him ; For which th’ atonement is to guard this drear hollow, PROMETHEUS BOUND. 17 Unsleeping, upright, and with unreposed sinews; And vainly many moans thou’lt utter, laments many, For unto prayer unyielding are Jove’s purposes — As new tenants of lordship are severe ever. Strength , . Come ! why this useless lingering to sympathize ? And why the gods’ worst enemy wilt not thou detest, Who thy peculiar excellence betray’d to men ? Hephcestus . Ties of blood and old fellowship are with pain sever’d. Strength . I grant ye ; but by what plan is the Sire’s behest To be got over? Art prepared for that better? Hephcestus. Thus alway art thou pitiless and unscrupulous. Strength. Because lamenting over him can heal nothing, Nor idly shouldst thou labour at th’ infeasible. Hephcestus. Out on this hated and detested handicraft ! B i8 PROMETHEUS BOUND. Strength . Why shouldst abhor it ? since, if all the truth is own’d, Art for the griefs we witness hath no blame to bear. Hephcestus . I would this only were to some one else assigned ! Strength . One feat is hopeless, that the gods should all govern, For Jove alone hath freedom, and none else hath it. Hephcestus . I know this, and none answer have to make to thee. Strength. Then wilt not hasten, and the chains about him hang, So that the Father may discern no loitering? Hephcestus . Here are the fast’nings of the curb prepared for him. Strength. About his arms now clamp him ; and effectively Bring down that hammer, and each one on the rock rivet. PRO ME THE US BOUND. 1 9 Hephcestus. This work is onward hast’ning, and is un delay’d. Strength . Strike and nip harder, and secure him every way ; For out of all straits parlous arts hath he to wind. Hephcestus . This arm is over-tightly clench’d at least for him. Strength . Then brace that other as hard up, and apprise him how Futile are his diplomacies unto Jupiter’s. Hephcestus. To none but him my labour ought to seem amiss. Strength. And now, with all thy power, urge the fang’d wedge’s Remorseless adamant right across the breast of him. Hephcestus. Ah, ah, Prometheus ! I’m to groan for thee driven ! Strength . What ! dost again flinch, and the foes of Jove lament % Beware, or haply thou’lt provoke thine own pity. b 2 20 PROMETHEUS BOUND. Hephcestus. Thou seest what eyesight hardly bears to rest upon. Strength . I see that he gets after his deserts punish’d. Now tightly compass with that under-rein the ribs. Hephcestus. I obey necessity : do not overmuch command. Strength . I will command it, and will howl it into thee. Go lower, and be fast’ning on the legs the gyves. Hephcestus . This I’ve accomplish’d and without prolong’d effort. Strength. Secure with hard blows over him the flesh’d fetters, As thou to one worth fearing art responsible. Hephcestus. Thy tongue resounds the likeness of thy countenance. Strength. Play thou the soft heart ; but reproach not unto me, That I’ve a rude complexion and peremptory. PROMETHEUS BOUND. 21 Hefhcestus. His limbs are all mesh’d : now let us depart again. Strength. Wilt here remain high-handed, and of deities Bestow the pilfer’d glories on the perishable ? What part of all thy misery will mankind carry ? Thy name Prometheus wrongly seems allow’d by us ! Thou need’st a true forethinker , who by some device Could extricate thee safely from this hard mishap. Prometheus (alone). O splendid HCther, O ye Winds of nimble wing, O Fountain-heads, and yonder hoary Deep’s billows Innumerously smiling, and all-teeming Earth, You, and the Sun’s orb that beholdeth all, attest How well the gods their fellow-god are revenged upon ! See th’ indignities uncouth, whereby Gall’d my difficult wrestlings I abide Of a thousand ages. Such a foul bondage this new paramount Of the supernals machinates for me ! Woe, woe ! sufferings, anticipations, Both compel a moan : where in eternity Shall a boundary loom to my anguish ? 22 PROMETHEUS BOUND. Yet why this utterance ? All the future unto me Stands clear beforehand ; and an unforeseen penance Cannot befall me ; but the weird I must abide Of Fate, as I most lightly can, remembering Necessity ’s arm’d with power incontestable; But how remain mute in such haps, or not remain ? I know not, who by serving of mankind, alas, Have come to be yoked under ills peremptory. I caught the furtive fire-spring, in the reed secured, Which shone to be man’s tutor, and for all behests Of art the chiefest power and resource he hath. Here’s then the suffering, which to mine offence belongs, Below the welkin riveted in my chains to pine. Ah, ah ! oh, oh ! oh, oh ! What accents % what odours Approach me without shape ? Be they divine, or human, or the twain yfere ? What has approach’d the limitary summit, To gaze upon mine anguish, or with what design ? See then an immortal, captive and malfortunate, Jove’s antagonist, who the benevolence Of those deities, all and each one, That Jove’s palace-hall range have sacrificed. Why ] for men having too much kindliness ! PROMETHEUS BOUND. 23 Ugh ! what a turmoil hear I again coming Hither of pinions ! what a whistling of air Unto the nimble wing-strokes answers! Dread is all for me that approaches. Chorus (entering, drawn by swans). Let nought alarm thee ! Tis a friendly band that urges* To this hill the plumy racers, Having our father uneath won over, To yield reluctantly the boon ; And rapid airs follow’d as my escorts ; For in the deep cave’s hollowness The clangour of steel echoed, and shook out o’ me Brow-tethering modesty : So shoeless, a rider in air, I hasten’d. Prometheus . Woe ’s me, woe ’s me ! You that fruitful Tethys’s offspring, You from a father sprung, that on all sides Rolls his flood around earth irreposably, Children of Ocean, look hither, view me ! What an enchainment up to the vale’s rocky * The indented lines are properly half-line 24 PROMETHEUS BOUND. Barriers clamps me, where I my vigil Am keeping, a warden unenvied. Chorus . I look, Prometheus : But a tearful haze alarmful Rusheth o’er my eyes beholding To the rocks thy body laid a-parching Beneath this ignominious Cankering heap of unyielding irons — Sithence th’ Olympic ship obeys A new direction : modelling the laws anew, Jove at his own caprices Begins what of old was immense to crumble. Prometheus. Rather had he below Earth, below Hades, Yon spirit-harbourer, into the bound-lacking Erebus plunged me, Wrapt in chains infrangible, horrible, So nor deity, nor other nature Thence were gratified ! Now to the welkin set up a standard, I pine to delight them who hate me. Chorus . Which of the gods thus hard a heart Can own, that herein he delights h PROMETHEUS BOUND. 25 To whom are undeplorable Thy griefs, but only Jove % for he to malice ever Setting as a flint his heart’s resolve, Tames the divine lineage, Nor will he not always ; Till he either appeaseth his heart, or a new- comer Him from his hard eminence supplanteth. Prometheus. Yet shall he algates need me, pent within Ignominious chains and ponderous, He the supremest god, to reveal him New conspiracies, which from his empire And prerogatives menace his downfall. Nor shall I hear from him honey-tongued rhetoric’s Incantations ; Yet shall his hard threats not a whit force me To the disclosure, ere from his horrible Chains to release me first he be willing, And an atonement For this disgrace to return me. Chorus. To thee belongs the daring heart That yields to no bitter agonies, The free tongue over all limits — 26 PROMETHEUS BOUND. But I with apprehension am the while harried, Looking to thy mishaps, to think Where is a term to be hail’d, Where arrived at, of thy miseries ? For a mood unapproachable hath the son Of Kronos, and difficult to sue to. Prometheus . Well have I known Jove bitter, and still having Reason on his side : yet shall he algates Very compliant Prove, let occasion that way buffet him ; And, on alliance bent and friendship, These tempestuous humours mollified, He’ll willing as welcome approach me. Chorus. Disclose the whole transaction and rehearse it us, What charge against thee Jupiter preferr’d, that he Might seize, to do thee shameful, hateful injuries. Instruct us, if the story cause no detriment. Prometheus . Ah, painful is the speaking, and the leaving it Unspoken, and ’tis grievous every way to bear. When first offences ’mid the gods had broken out, And into factions controversy parted us, PROMETHEUS BOUND. 27 Some were desirous from the throne to push Kronos For Jove to take it : but the opposing host declared They would not have Jove ruler of the gods at all. And when with wholesome counsel I prevail’d no- thing, Urging the Titans yonder — heav’n and earth-begot — (For, slighting all mild remedies,*! in their haughtiness, They thought to violently gain the mastery With small ado ; yet often of futurity, My mother, a shape whereunto many a name adheres, As Themis or Earth, predicted all the course to me, How that the victor would not owe to force ever Or vehemence the achieving of the mastery, But all to policy ; yet, when I this maxim urged, They would not on me condescend to cast a look ;) Hence of such instant courses as the affair allow’d, To lend a welcome cheerful aid to Jupiter, My mother assisting, seem’d the most advisable. So my devices have for eldest-born Kronos And his supporters made the dark profundities Of hell an abode : yet owing all this unto me, Look, how the tyrant of the gods with injuries Pays me ; for usurpation has this vice ever, That no reliance upon a friend consists with it. Now for the question, how provoked these outrages He puts upon me, this will I rehearse to you. 28 PROMETHEUS BOUND. When yon paternal sceptre he began to wield, With sundry portions he the sundry gods fitted, And gave them empire : but to poor mankind would he Deign no regard, but wholly sought to exterminate Their race, to plant a fresh one on the site of it. And thus devising, none but I resisted him : I dared it only : thus was I man’s rescuer From falling headlong blasted into hell’s abyss. Therefore to make me yielding are such pains devised, Severe to bear and pitiable for eyes to view ; Thus I, that on man had beyond myself pity, Am not supposed to merit it, and despitefully Am here retemper’d, sight to Jove inglorious. Chorus . Oh, iron-hearted and cut out of stone is he, That shares not indignation at thy wretchedness ! For I, Prometheus, neither have this spectacle Been fain to view, nor viewing am not heart-stricken. Prometheus. In faith, I am ruthworthy for my friends to see. Chorus. Didst thou not haply further after this proceed ? PROMETHEUS BOUND. 29 Prometheus . Man’s glimpses of destruction I withheld from him. Chorus . How ? for the malady what relief occurr’d to thee ? Prometheus. To plant within the bosom hopes purblind ever. Chorus . Great is the benefit truly man deriveth hence. Prometheus. And fire have I subjected herewithal to them. Chorus . So man the beamy countenance of fire commands ? Prometheus. Ay ! from which also many an art will he derive. Chorus. Are these the charges truly Jove insists upon, That he doth outrage, doth remit no grief to thee ? And unto thine affliction is no term assign’d ? Prometheus. None, till the period when by his desire it ends. 3o PROMETHEUS BOUND. Chorus. By his ? what hope ? but art not in thyself aware Of erring ? how far neither I contentedly Can tell, nor heark’ning be not all unsweet to thee. But leave it : only seek thou out a cure for all. Prometheus. Whose feet are outside of mishaps, it is not hard For him to counsel and direct th’ unfortunate. But I did all and each thing understand aright, And wilful I’ve err’d, wilful, I’ll avow to you, Since I to save humanity must myself sorrow. Yet was the guise of suffering unforeseen to me, That from the dizzy rocks I should here hang a- withering. Upon the naked and the neighbourhoodless hill. Yet now bewail not my calamities actual, But rather, having alighted on the ground, listen To what the time prepareth, and learn out the whole. Be guided, O be guided ; and endure with him That is to-day the sufferer. Unto sundry ones At sundry times will roving Evil hand the cup. Chorus. Not on unwilling ears truly, Prometheus, Falls thy precept : PROMETHEUS BOUND. Lo, my nimble chariot quitted, and Air, the feather’d kind’s limpid thoro’fare, Tow’rd this craggy land here I am hast’ning : And thy destinies I crave entirely to master. Oceamts (entering). Ending a distant journey, Prometheus, Here I approach thee, guiding a fleet-wing’d Fowl by will alone, all unbridled, And thy affliction, be assured, wounds me, Both as kindred’s natural sympathies Haply necessitate, And that, apart hence, there’s not another whom I would apportion dearer affection : And my true speech thou shalt recognize. For no flatterer’s tongue have I ; test me, Tell me wherein might I avail thee : And thou’lt not avouch Any friend more staunch than is Ocean. Prometheus. Aha ! what is thy meaning ? art thou too to view My pains come ? how didst venture on relinquishing The stream that is co-partner of thy name, the caves To which the live rock is the roof, and entering 32 PROMETHEUS BOUND. This land, the womb of iron ? Art intent upon Seeing what I bear, with my ills to sympathize ? Behold the sight then, how the friend of Jupiter, His helper in the founding of the despotism, Am here to be with agony made amenable. Oceonus . I see, Prometheus ; and the best advice to thee, Be’t e’en to one so politic, I desire to give. Begin to learn thy margin, and to new manners Conform, for he’s new, that the gods hath under him. But if to words so galling and so truculent Thy mouth give utterance, haply Jove, if e’en on high Enthroned, will hear thee ; whence his anger here- tofore Will seem a discipline only for the woes to come. Set rather, O distress’d one, all this heat aside, And seek th’ abatement of the pains that cleave to thee. Thou deem’st the doctrine trivial, out of date perhaps ? But of the tongue that speaketh over-loftily, These, O Prometheus, are the wages and the dues. Yet no whit art thou lowly, nor to pain docile, But wilt pull evil after evil unto thee. PROMETHEUS BOUND. 33 Yet not, were I thy teacher, up to meet the pricks Wouldst raise a foot, perceiving how the lord of all Is sternly minded, and to none responsible. But now will I be seeking how to win release For thee from all this evil ; and do thou remain Peaceful the while, and loose not overmuch the tongue. Why should the knower of so much yet have to learn That for the rash mouth is the chastisement pre- pared ? Prometheus . Joy be to thee, for ’scaping all unblamed away, When thou’dst in all my daring and my plans a part. Leave me still algates : let th’ affair be nought to thee : Thou need’st not hope to move him : he’s unpliable. Look only lest the journey cause thine own annoy. Oceanus. Better to neighbours than to self ’tis thine to give Advice ; nor hearsay, but the fact evinces it. But, I beseech thee, my prepared attempt allow, For I’ll to thee be surety, Jove at my request Will deign to free thee from this hard adversity. Prometheus . One praise will I give, and deny no more to thee, In zeal to be not wanting, as becomes a friend, c 34 PROMETHEUS BOUND . But spend not on me labour : I can have nothing For me done, if not futile and without profit. But dwell securely rather, and in quietness, For I desire not, if to me betide sorrow, That on the most heads possible it should have to fall. Oceanus * Ah no ! for eke my kinsman Atlas his penance Grieves me, that at the frontier of yon Occident The pillar upholdeth of the world and heav’n against His shoulder, uncouth burden in the clasp of arms. And of the caves Cilician I with ruth beheld Typhon the inhabitant monstrous, of the brood of earth, Violently master’d spite of all his hundred heads — Th’ impetuous enemy, that, the gods’ united host Challenging, hiss’d destruction out of jaws abhorr’d, And flash’d a Gorgon brightness underneath his eyes, As now to quell Jove’s suzerainty compassing. Yet came to reach him Jupiter’s wakeful weapon, The fiery-breathing lightning, headlong in descent, Which from the vauntings of the proud tongue ousted him, For in the breath’s mid-region he received the wound, That scorch’d up all his power and outblasted it. * This speech is by some good critics assigned to Prometheus. PROMETHEUS BOUND. 35 Now yon disabled and unhandy bulk of his Lies in the sea-lane’s neighbourhood, below the roots Of ^Etna fasten’d, where the labour of the forge Hephaestus urges, on the lofty peaks sitting — There whence the floods hereafter of the fiery deep Shall burst an outlet, and begnaw the rich levels With jaw ferocious of Sicilia fruit-adorn’d. Such wrath the Titan from below will cause to seethe, A fiery foam’s abateless and hot-breathed volleys — He, scorch’d to ruins by the brand of Jupiter. Prometheus . % Thou know’st the teaching of the times, nor I to thee Need play the master : use the best device to save Thyself ; but I’ll my fortune out and out abide, Till Jove from indignation have released his heart, $> Oceanus. Art thou, Prometheus, of the doctrine ignorant, That words are healers of the mind that anger heats ? Prometheus. Aye, when that unction seasonably reaches hearts, Not when the turgid humour is by force reduced. Oceanus. But in the being cautious and adventurous, Dost thou behold an evil ? answer that, prithee. C 2 3 ^ PRO ME jt HE US BOUND . Prometheus . I see but idle labour and a fond folly. Oceanus . Leave me this ailment, for the road to thrive is his That, knowing excellently, seems to know nothing. Prometheus . Well, this to be my trespass haply must appear. Oceanus . Thy word’s a signal for returning home to me. Prometheus . Lest wailing o’er me should to thee bring enmities. Oceanus . Mean’st thou with him that on the mighty throne sitteth ? Prometheus . Beware, against thee lest his heart be stirr’d anew. Oceanus , Thy lot, Prometheus, is the best instructor here. Prometheus . Mount and depart then, while the politic humour holds. PROMETHEUS BOUND . 37 Oceanus (departing). Thy speeches on one hast’ning urge alacrity. And now the flying quadruped the buxom air Ruffles with eager pinion, and his joints to rest Within the wonted shelter of the stall covets. Chorus. I sigh, Prometheus, To behold the woe befall’n thee. An abundant river of tears, From a tender eye departing, Floodeth all the cheek beneath it ; For ill-omenedly Jupiter, At his own caprice commanding, To the gods obey’d before him Showeth a victor’s haughty temper. And now the region Ringeth all to notes of anguish, Sobbing after the majestic Domination and the pristine, Which among thy house thou owned st. Not a mortal in the sacred Lesser Asia’s homes sojourneth, But a share his heart receiveth In thy afflictions sore to wail for. 38 PROMETHEUS BOUND. Add you armies of the Colchic Shore, the maids in arms unhumbled, And the Tartar hordes commanding On the verge o’ the world the confines o’ the lake Meotis; And [Arabia’s] hardy man-crop, And the lofty-nested hamlet, Of the Caucasus the neighbour, Whence the loud battle-order of spears in a wedge united. One only Titan I beheld in thrall before With a chain of unyielding links to gall him ; And this was the god Atlas, Who still the mighty force he owns lamenteth, And upon his shoulders to support the burthen of the welkin. There boom the mighty sea-currents Meeting, and the deep sobbeth : The gloomy caves rebellow beneath of Hades, And the rivers’ hyaline fountains bemoan the rueful anguish. Prometheus . Think not that out of self-will or from haughtiness I cleave to silence : but the conscious heart within PROMETHEUS BOUND. 39 Pains me, because brow-beaten I’m compell’d to see Myself : yet who divided all the privileges Mid those the young divinities ? who but I was it ? But unsaid I will leave it ; else I might to you But tell what ye know plainly : now the woes amongst Humanity reigning hearken, how by me the race Once brutish, have to reason and to thought arrived. I will rehearse it, not to chide men here withal, But my benevolence in the gifts to call to mind ; For, firstly, seeing they discern’d confusedly, And hearing heard not ; but to dreamy shows muddled The live-long hours* at random ; and unknown to them Remain’d the mason’s fabric on the noon looking, And what the joiner shapeth : and below the ground They dwelt, as in their sunless holes the feeble ants. Nor was the winter, or the bloomy spring discern’d, Or fruitful autumn, by secure criterions : All was done headlong and apart from intellect — Till I the setting and rising of the stars defined, Hard lore to compass : and the doctrine excellent Of number, and the multifarious orderings Of writing, and that universal artisan, Memory, the parent of the Nine, I brought to them. * I would read aXiyno v for aXiyicioi. 40 PROMETHEUS BOUND . I first bade harness in the yoke those huge cattle To the bonds obedient ; and, to give to man relief In all his harder labour, in the cars did I Fasten the rein-contented horses, ornament Of splendour over-wealthy. None but I the first Made known the canvas-plumed and the surge- betoss’d Frame that the mariner rideth. And behold a wretch, Who, such resources unto man by him given, To ward my own disaster off have no device ! Chorus . Thou’st borne a grievous burthen, and from reason art Gone erring ; and like leeches ignorant, on whom The malady falleth, art become discomfited, Nor know’st the medicine which can health restore to thee. Prometheus . Thou wilt on hearing all the rest be more amazed, What arts have I supplied them and expedients. And this the chiefest, that, whene’er disease occurr’d, No remedy was before them, either in the shape Of food, or unguent, or potation — unrelieved They stay’d, a-sick’ning and a-withering, until I Taught them the virtues of the balmy lenitives, PROMETHEUS BOUND. 4 * That now from every malady make a shield to them ; And divination multifarious I devised, And first determined how much of the dream becomes Aught real, and of all presages audible And casual omens pointed out the mysteries. And I defined each flying of the crook-talon’d Prey-birds, the dextral and sinistral auguries That each to nature oweth, and of every kind The daily nurture, and the loves and enmities And conferences. I defined the smooth-tissued Surface of entrails, and by wearing of what hues They might a grateful spectacle to gods afford. I taught the diverse symmetries of the lobe, the gall, And, by the burning of the limbs with fat cover’d, And of the long loin, into an art mysterious The sons of earth I guided : and the signs living In fire have I made ocular, if purblind before. And thus much hereof : and below the ground again The things hid unto human arts available, Gold, silver, iron, who’d pretend that he reveal’d Sooner than 1 1 None surely, were not he to prate. But summ’d up in a short saying hear the whole of it : ’Tis from Prometheus that men all their arts derive. 42 PROMETHEUS BOUND. Chorus . Do not beyond occasion human kind befriend, Thyself neglecting in thy own adversities ; For I’m yet hopeful that, from all this ill released, Thou’lt reach an equal greatness unto Jupiter’s. Prometheus . This course to this goal has the might inflexible Of Fate not order’d, until, under infinite Pains kneaded, I from thraldom have yon way to flee ; For art doth all too feebly cope with destiny. Chorus. But who then is the pilot of this destiny % Prometheus. ’Tis what the three Fates, and the wary Furies are. Chorus. And with them is J ove even all too weak to cope ? Prometheus. The predetermined is to Jove inevitable. Chorus . What is determined, save that he’s to rule for aye ? PROMETHEUS BOUND. 43 Prometheus . Ye must not hear it ; do not urge the question home. Chorus . Tis something awful surely thou dost keep withheld. Prometheus . Recall to memory something else : to this topic The time is all unsuited ; and with all covers I must protect it ; for, retaining here my hold, I ’scape the bonds that shend me and th’ adversities. Chorus . Jove, the governor of all, Ne’er on our conscience set a bar with his empire, Nor let us loiter visiting The divine tables with approved hecatombs, Yonder o’er the water abateless Of our sire Oceanus, Or by a word give offence ! This within my heart abide, Nor out of it be melted. Sweet it is in well-assured Hopes the length of life to devolve, if a mortal With the light of gaiety pamper Her heart ; but we shudder at witnessing 44 PROMETHEUS BOUND . Thee with infinite sufferings visited, Seeing that unawed By the supreme sovereign, Thou to mortals dost allow Too much regard, Prometheus. Look, it all is a grace to the graceless ! Aread, good heart, what helpmate, What upholder has all the race of earth to lend thee 1 Be aware what a puny, futile, Dreamy life it is that hampers Such a being on earth, such a blind generation ! No, never have the devices of humankind The rule o’ Jove defeated. That have I recognised, looking at Thy abhorred hap, Prometheus, Which a tune ill-accorded in my heart awaketh To the one, that about the bath-place Sounded, and about the bower, When a sister of ours well-equipp’d we attended, As thine Hesione to the chamber that The wifely mate divideth. Io (entering). Where ami? whom among ? whom encounter I In rocky fast’nings tempest-beaten ? PROMETHEUS BOUND. 45 For what offences suffering, perishing ? Whither, O teach me, Forlorn upon earth am I erring ? Ah, ah ! aha, aha ! Again besets me miserable the gadfly, The ghost of earthsprung Argus ! Earth aroint him ! I shrink that herdsman myriad-eyed beholding ! Ever attends on me that crafty look of his ; For ’tis not in death even earth can hide him, But penetrating always From the dead under he returns, alas, And up the sea-sand hunts me Bewilder’d, starving. Hark, ’tis anew that reed Wax-fasten’d, shrilling out Melodies slumberous ! Whither afar, whither, Whither am I driven on ] Why, alas, Jupiter, Why was I ta’en alone, Unto this doom to yoke, I the forlorn woman 1 Why with horror hunt a soul Frantic and miserable ? Scorch with lightning, or else Whelm within earth, or else Give to the sea-dragons me to gnaw. 46 PROMETHEUS BOUND. Mighty lord, begrudge not This to my request. Too sorely, sorely proved am I With straying and restraying, and still ignorant Where to flee my miseries ? Hearest thou this half-maiden and half-heifer ? Prometheus . And how should I not hear the child of Inachus, Her by the gadfly hunted, who with love the soul Inflames of high J ove, and by Hera’s enmity Is forced to run this weary, weary pilgrimage. lo. Why with a name so dear Meets me thine utterance h Tell a woful woman, tell her, aha, tell her, Miserable sufferer, Who it is so readily My sorrows can rehearse, And the bane of the madd’ning, the withering terrors? Ah, with uncouth springings, Frantic and hunger-urged, From Juno’s malice I flee hither impotent. Ah, where ’s any being unfortunate, Bears the woe that I bear? PROMETHEUS BOUND. 47 But declare, prithee, Not darkly what remains to thole? What healing or what suaging of my woe remains? Speak it, if thou know it ! Tell, O tell the maid wandering desperate, Prometheus . I’ll plainly tell thee, whatsoe’er thy need requires, In homely language and without inwrought quibbles, As op’ning our mouth unto friends we owe to them. Thou seest Prometheus and the giver of fire to men, Io. 0 general author of the weal that men possess, Wretched Prometheus, why belongs this doom to thee ? Prometheus. 1 have the dolorous story barely now quitted, Io. Wilt thou not even this demand allow to me ? Prometheus . Ask it, for I will answer all thy questioning. Io. Tell me then, who was fast’ner of thy form aloft ? 4 8 PROMETHEUS BOUND . Prometheus . Jove’s was the counsel, and the hand Hephaestus’s. Io. And for what evil has this unto thee befall’n ? Prometheus . Forbear to seek : beyond this I can tell nothing. Io. And only tell me, tell the maid unfortunate, How long ’s to last the period of my wanderings ? Prometheus . What need to learn it ? best abide in ignorance. Io. At least withhold not that which is for me reserved. Prometheus. That service I do surely grudge not unto thee. Io. Then why reluctant ? why not all the tale rehearse ? Prometheus. I grudge not : I dread only thine annoy to cause. Io. Care not to serve me trulier than I require. PROMETHEUS BOUND. 49 Prometheus . Dost urge it ? I will answer, and ’tis thine to hear. Chorus . Stay, give to me my portion of the like pleasure : Let us begin by hearing of what aileth her, If that disastrous story she’ll herself relate ; Then teach her all that haply must be borne by her. Prometheus. Io, to thee belongs it unto these to show The kindness ask’d for, as to thy paternal aunts, (Nor is that all); but weeping and lamenting out What ill befalls us, when the tears of sympathy Can be won, is no spending of the time amiss. Io. I truly know not how to shun your confidence ; I shall to your wish answer unreservedly — Though, speaking even, I bemoan that god-derived Storm and that overthrowing of my birth-given Feature, which on me sad woman unawares arrived. To me the phantoms of the night were aye flocking Within the chamber of the maids, and whispering A gentle exhortation, “ O most fortunate Among the daughters, why prolong thy maidenhood, Having the greatest wooer at thy feet ? sithence D 50 PR 0 ME r i HE US BOUND. Jove with the dart is wounded of thy loveliness, And claims the bond of Venus. O reject not him, Girl, from the couch he coveteth. Hearken, and come out To the deep meadows Lernsean, and beside the sheep And oxen of thy father, and relieve the gaze Of Jupiter from pining.” Every night was I With dreams thus haunted, unhappy one, till hardihood I won, to tell my father of the night-visions. He then to Delphi and Dodona sent many To seek the god’s face, and to learn by what measures Or by what utterance we could heav’nly grace regain. And they reported each one, on returning home, Hard things in high-flown phrases and mysterious. At length a plain direction Inachus received, Which told him, and full straitly charged, to send me out From our abode and even o’er the land’s limits, To roam to the very margin of the world unheld. If he refused it, flamy lightning had to come From Jove, to whelm his kindred in one ruin all. Wherefore, to Phoebus yielding and to the prophecy, He, loth as I was, drove abroad, and shut the doors PROMETHEUS BOUND. 5i Of home upon me ; for the curb of Jupiter By violence thereunto was constraining him. At once then on my person and mine intellect Distortion enter’d ; and with horns, as you behold, By a madd’ning insect hunted, I ran out amain To the water of Kerkhnaea, thirsty men’s delight, And Lerna’s hill, whilst Argus at my heels follow’d, That testy keeper earth-sprung, who my path ever With countless eyes inspected. He was hence re- moved By some death all unlook’d for : I from land to land Roam fly-stung onward, by the lash divine hurried. I have the past related : if thou know besides What grief awaits me, speak it, and with falsities Soothe me not overkindly, for the loathsomest, Methinks, of evil is to trust in make-believes. Chorus . Alack, ’tis pitiful, pitiful ! Out upon it ! never, O never have I believed That to my ear could arrive so uncouth a tale, That such insufferable, not to be look’d upon Terrors, penances, outrages, Like a weapon double-edged could have assail’d my soul. d 2 imm UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 52 PROMETHEUS BOUND. Alas, alas, destiny, destiny ! I shudder at seeing what Io beareth. Prometheus . Thou’rt like a girl faint-hearted, all too soon sobbing; Wait, till the remnant of the tale be told to thee. Chorus . Speak and declare it, since the best for those that ail Is that beforehand they should hear what is to be. Prometheus. What first you ask’d me, I’ve procured you easily, In that from her narration ye desired to learn Her heretofore disaster : hear of me the rest. And take to heart my story, seed of Inachus, Thou too, to know the period of thy wanderings. Turn tow’rd the sunrise firstly, when thou go’st from hence, Thy feet, across the region unto ploughs denied, And thou’lt arrive in Scythia, ’mid the roving hordes That on the well-wheel’d chariot off the ground erect Their textile houses, and afar with bows threaten. With them commune not; but, beside the sea’s fretting Verge thy foot holding, pass beyond the country’s end. Then will the Chalybes on the left appear to thee, PROMETHEUS BOUND. 53 Workers in iron ; but beware of their abodes, For that’s a fierce folk and to guests unreachable. Thou’lt have to meet Hybrista (truly-named river*) Next that, but o’er it pass not (hard it is to pass) Till fairly thou’st proceeded up to Caucasus, Of all the mountains loftiest, to where the flood, Its brows dividing, ’gins to foam his pride abroad. Thence it behoves thee tow’rd the south to make a way Beyond the peaks that only with the stars commune, And on the man-detesting Amazon hosts arrive, Who dwell beside Thermodon, in Themiskyra, Where roughly jaw-like Salmydesus hems the surge, Hateful to mariners and to ships a stepmother. They will to guide thee gladly lend their services ; And on the Kimbric isthmus, at the lake’s narrow And outer avenues, thou’lt arrive ; and hardily Thou’lt leave it, and swim o’er the lake Maeotian. And men shall of thy fording hear a great renown Hereafter always ; and the name of Bosporus Thou wilt bequeath to the channel; and of Asia thence Thou’lt reach the coast from Europe. How suppose ye now ? # I. e . insolent. 54 PROMETHEUS BOUND. Is not the tyrant of the gods with all alike Stern, who desiring, as this earthly maiden he (Himself a god) desireth, heaps these toils on her. Ah child ! ’tis a bitter wooer of thy maidenhood That has befall’n thee ; for the words as yet rehearsed Are not the bare preamble of the griefs to come. lo. Ah, ah, woe to me ! ah, and wo to me ! Prometheus . Art thou lamenting, breaking into sobs anew ? What will come of thee knowing all the rest of ills ? Chorus . Hath she some anguish even after this to learn ? Prometheus . A howling ocean of calamity desperate. Io> What gain can I then live to? Why should I not haste Myself to cast down headlong off this beetling height, That, on the ground once hurtling, I from all sorrows Might win releasement ? Surely once for all to die Were less than always suffering on from day to day. PROMETHEUS BOUND. 55 Prometheus . Thou’dst hardly mine affliction undergo with ease, Because death is not even in my destinies, Nor will release me from the griefs I have to bear ; And I can hope no rescue from futurity Save at the downfall of the throne of Jupiter. lo. Will Jupiter from reigning have to cease ever? Prometheus. It would delight thee doubtless if thou saw’st the thing. Io. How not ? when I such miseries owe to Jupiter. Prometheus. Then mark that of realities I discourse to thee. Io. To whom will he the lordly sceptre have to yield? Prometheus. His own devices lean-witted will ruin him. Io. How? teach us, if the question is no scath to thee* PROMETHEUS BOUND. 56 Prometheus . He’ll consummate an union he will have to rue. Jo. Divine or human ? speak, if aught thou canst of it. Pro?netheus . To whom demand not : that remains unutterable. lo. And by the consort will the throne depart from him ? Prometheus . Her child will o’er his father have the mastery. lo. Is there for him no fleeing of the blow prepared ? Prometheus. Nay, that there is not, unless I, from bonds released — lo. Who can release thee, Jupiter not choosing it? Prometheus. To be one of thine offspring it behove th him. lo. Say’st thou, that of my children is thy rescuer ? PROMETHEUS BOUND. 57 Prometheus. The third descendant following on the tenth is he. To. I can this oracle hardly find conceivable. Prometheus. Nor further into thine affliction ask to look. To. . Withhold not, after holding out, the boon to me. Prometheus. Thou shalt have either narrative out of this couple. To. Of what couple 1 tell, and propose the choice to me. Prometheus. Well, choose to learn distinctly what remains to thee Of thine affliction, or to learn my rescuer. ChoruSi Nay, with the one tale favour her, then favour us With th’ other, if our entreaty thy regard merit. Tell her the future wanderings in store for her, Tell us what I crave, who’s to be thy rescuer. 58 PROMETHEUS BOUND. Prometheus. Since you thus urge it, I deny no more to you The whole narration ye desire the hearing of. Io then, at thy mazy journeys I’ll begin, Which hold in heedful tablet of thy soul written. Yon stream, which is the frontier of the continent, When thou’st gone over, tow’rd the flamy sun-trod East Thy course across the surges of the Caspian hold, Till thou the Gorgon country reach, Kisthena, where Three maids dwell, hoary like the swan, the Phorkides, Who share one eye between them, and one tooth have each, Where gleams the sun not or the nightly moon ever. Nigh them resides the plumy sisterhood triple, The man-detested Gorgon es, with snaky locks, Which he that only seeth, has no more to breathe. One danger here is noted ; and attend again, What a sight tremendous even after this follows. Beware the Gryphons, voiceless # hounds of Jupiter, Sharp-mouthed, and the legion of the single-eyed Arimaspian horsemen, who beside the gold-gravell’d Stream their abode have, where the ford of Plutus is. # Perhaps meaning barkless , to show that hounds is said metaphorically, as afterwards of the vulture. PROMETHEUS BOUND. 59 With them commune not : and a border-land remote Thou’lt reach, a dusky people, who below the dawn Dwell, on the flood that laveth ^Ethiopia. Then keep beside its margin, unto where afar Thou’lt find the cataract, which the draughts delect- able Of holy Nilus off the Bybline hill flingeth. Thy guide will he be tow’rd that isle triangular, His Delta, where thy children have with thee to found, Io, the distant colony that the Fates design. But if aught of all this seemeth hard or intricate, Bid me repeat it, till the truth thou reach of all, For leisure here aboundeth, and exceeds desire. Chorus . If aught yet uncompleted, or put by remain, That she should hear thee mention of that mazy route, Speak : but if it all be spoken, O deny not us Our boon on our side : surely thou rememberest. Prometheus . She’s heard the furthest journey that’s for her reserved; But lest a doubt come o’er her of the truth of all, I’ll say what had befall’n her ere she came hither, So that this also may to vouch my story serve. 6o PROMETHEUS BOUND. I will the general multitude of points omit, And on the latest enter of thy wanderings. When thou the plain Molossian hadst attain’d, about The steepy-ridged Dodona, where that halidom Of Jupiter Thesprotic and his shrine appear, And (past belief) that wonder of the talking oaks That plainly gave thee greeting, and without quibble, As Jove’s renown’d wife in the days that are to be — If such a prediction haply can thy soul delight — Thence, by the fierce compulsion of the fly driven, Fledd’st thou to Rhea’s huge lap, all the coast along, From which disaster hunted off thy steps anew. And learn this also, that the name Ionian Shall cleave to yonder inlet of the main ever, That all men of thy journey may the story learn. This much to be the token of my skill to thee, That not th’ apparent only therein entereth ; And ’tis for her sake and for yours I tell the rest, Gathering the former traces of my tale anew. There lies a town Canopus on the land’s limits, Right at the Nile’s mouth where the drift accumulates. Here shall depart thy frenzies at the laying-on And mere touch of the quiet hand of Jupiter. Which touch to keep in memory thou’lt conceive of him Thy sable Epaphus, as the name will testify. All lands the broad Nile watereth shall he possess : PROMETHEUS BOUND . 61 And fifty maids, his offspring in the fifth degree, Shall wander on compulsion Argos-wards again, Th’ unkindly wedlock fleeing of their own cousins, Who then with hearts high-beating, in the guise of hawks, What time the doves can barely, barely keep ahead, Will come to chase the bridal all unchaseable ; But heav’n the bosoms of the maids will grudge to them, And soil Pelasgic win them * at the bold vigil Of murder in the feminine hand victorious ; So that the life of one man every she shall have, Who dyes the double edge of the sword in sacrifice. — Feel thus my enemies Aphrodita’s influence ! Love shall one only damsel of them all beguile From slaying her bed’s partner, her resolve in her Being disabled ; and between alternatives She’ll choose the craven’s, not the name of murderess. A kingly seed will Argos out of her derive. Long arguments were needed all the rest to show ; But hence a champion, famous at the bow, will have His origin, who my thraldom is to terminate. Thus has that ancient Titaness, my own mother See Wellauer’s interpretation. 62 PROMETHEUS BOUND. Themis predicted, and the tale rehearsed to me. But how ! but at what aera % that for thee to learn Would need much heark’ning and to no good end avail. Io (departing). Horror unbearable ! how convulsions And frenzies of heart thrill again through me From that scorching venom unkindled ! How my throbbing heart spurns my bosom ! Giddy mine eyes roll, and my footsteps Frenzy’s wild spirit out o’ the pathway Pushes at random ; my tongue wandereth, And my stammering words buffet idly Stern surges of infatuation. Chorus. How politic, politic was he, Who the thought foremost in his heart carried, And by word set afloat as a maxim, That to find one’s mate on his own level Is by far the best : And not for him that toileth to desire a partner Either of those whom opulence puffeth up, Or the pride of lofty birth exalts. Me never, O never have the Fates Tow’rd the couch of Jove to behold bidden, PROMETHEUS BOUND. 63 Or with deity pair’d from Olympus ! All aghast I stand to behold When a lacklove maidenhood, Like that which Io weareth, the disastrous hatred Of the wife of Jove pitilessly devours, And to hateful wanderings condemns. I dread not, if the yoke sit equally ! May ne’er the lordly gods’ love unto me Direct the gaze of eyes inevitable ! For then the war is all unwarrable, And help is helpless : what can come of it ? Surely Jove’s resolves How to shun I discern not. Prometheus . Yet Jove, for all he maketh his desire a law, Shall once get humbled — I behold prepared for him So dire a wedlock, whose effect from mastery And throne shall oust, and into nought shall crumble him. Then shall the curse completely be fulfill’d, the curse Kronos bequeath’d him, who the throne of Eld quitted. Out of this evil no one of the gods but I A safe release can teach him : — all is known to me, 6 4 PROMETHEUS BOUND. And how to effect it. Now then on the throne let him Sit, trusting in the bellowing of the firmament, And poise the lightning’s flamy bolt in both his hands — That shall not aught avail him, or secure him aught From falling infamously falls unbearable. Against his own self he prepares himself a foe So formidable, a monster overhard to fight, Who fire to worst the lightning, and a dreadfuller z Peal than the thunder’s shall devise to cope with it. He shall the trident of the seas, the lance that arms Poseidon, and that ague-shakes the world, shatter, That Jove, when into ruin here his foot rushes, May learn whether the master and the slave differ. Chorus. Thy wish createth wordy dooms for Jupiter. Prometheus . This is what I wish, and it is what is to be. Chorus. Can one then over Jupiter get mastery ? Prometheus. Yes, he’ll yet harder anguish have than mine to bear. PROMETHEUS BOUND. 65 Chorus. But how without awe canst a word like this fling out ? Prometheus. Why, what should awe me, — death not in my destinies? Chorus. But if some heavier suffering he decreed to thee. Prometheus. Let him ! for all extremities I’ve to be prepared. Chorus. Yet are the fawners on the Needs-must-be the wise. Prometheus. Revere, adore, cringe unto those aloft ever ; But I reck of Jove less than of nonentity. Leave him to do, to lord it all this hour of his ! Not long the sovereign of the gods shall he remain. But yonder I see Jupiter’s courier coming, The new usurper’s minion, and beyond a doubt He has to be th’ announcer of some new decree. Hermes (entering). Hark, thou the sophist, the bitter and the too bitter, That hast the gods defrauded in thy zeal to lend E 66 PROMETHEUS BOUND. Honour to mortals, thou the fire’s purloiner, hark ! The Sire demands more notice of those ties of his Which thou’st begun to prate of, and which are to cause His fall from empire. He’ll without mysterious Terms have the truth minutely. Turn to no quibbles With me, Prometheus. Thou’st a proof had already That these to soften Jupiter can help nothing. Prometheus. A lofty-tongued speech and with high conceit swelling, Such as the legate of the gods aright befits ! Ye reign a new seed newly, yet forsooth flatter Yourselves as holding a citadel from hurt secure. But have not I seen tyranny twice flung out of it ? And shall not I most quickly, most disgracefully Expect the third who reigneth overthrown to see ? Dost think the young gods are to me redoubtable And dreadful ? I grant neither all nor part of it. Return, plod homeward on the way thou cam’st hither, For I’ll not answer anything at thy questioning. PROMETHEUS BOUND . 67 Hermes . Yet by defying heretofore in this fashion Thou’st into this calamity run thyself aground. Prometheus. Thou mayst believe me, that to gain thy servitude I’d not resign my miseries. I count it better That I should here the bondsman of the rock remain Than rise to be the trusty page of Jupiter. ’Tis thus with insult we should answer insolence. Hermes. One might believe thee resting here in luxury. Prometheus . Luxury ! could I mine enemies in this luxury See resting ! and among them hold thyself reckon’d. Hermes. Mean’st thou to me too something of thy lot to charge ? Prometheus. Wilt take a simple answer? All the gods alike I hate, that owe me kindness and with wrongs repay. e 2 68 PROMETHEUS BOUND. Hermes. How frantic is the malady thy discourse reveals ! Prometheus. Is hating enemies malady ? Then to me give it. Hermes. Thou’dst be beyond all bearing, if more fortunate. Prometheus.* Ah me ! Hermes. Of “ ah me ” Jove doth understand nothing. Prometheus. Time waxeth older, and in all instructeth us. Hermes. Of self-command yet thou’st not understood the lore. Prometheus. Else I should hardly bandy words with servitors. Hermes. Thou wilt not answer Jupiter’s demands belike? Prometheus. Of course the service richly were deserved by him. PROMETHEUS BOUND. 69 Hermes. Thou dost deride me for that I am young perhaps. Prometkeus. Thou art a younker and whate’er is foolisher, If thou believest I will aught disclose to thee. There’s no device, no villainy Jove can do to me, That shall to wring this secret out of me suffice, Till he remove my, bondage and opprobrium. Now let descend the smoky thunderbolt from him, Let him with uproar subterrene and white-winged Snows jumble and distemper all the world’s array. Yet nought shall even hereto make me bend, to say Who shall the power of the mighty wrest from him. Hermes. But how can all this help to serve thine interest ? Prometheus. Long since have I foreseen it and prepared for all. Hermes. Mad heart, bethink thee, though not able here- tofore, And by the crisis learn to shape thy sentiments. 70 PROMETHEUS BOUND . Prometheus. Thou cramm’st upon me counsel idle as the wave; Let it not enter into thy conceits that I Shall wax effeminate with the fear of Jupiter, To crave the mercies of one hateful unto me With a mock-woman presenting of the palms, in hope My chains that he may loosen. I’m not half for it. Hermes . I talk much, and much have to talk in vain perhaps : Thou grow’st not either gentler or more pliable, But at the curb art chafing, as the newly-yoked Young horse rebels, and vehemently pulls the rein. Yet weak ’s the reason which supports thy violence ; For worse than unsupported is the self-support Of self-will in th’ affection of the mind that errs. But if to my words no regard thou deign, reflect How sore a tempest, and an afterwave triple Of ills opposeless are to come : for first of all The lightning of the Father and the flamy bolt Shall tear up all this rough crag, and below bury Thy body, that on the shoulder of the rift shall hang. Then, after ages consummated, hither again PROMETHEUS BOUND. 7i Thou’lt come to daylight, and to thee the flying hound Of Jove, the blood-red eagle, who shall portion out With greedy beak thy torn flesh, and return to feed, A daily guest unwelcome, on thy dusk liver. And of this anguish hope to reach the term never, Until to be partaker of thy pain arrive One of the gods, who freely shall the gloom visit Of lightless Hades and th’ abysm of Tartarus. Now shape to this thy counsel, as no forgery, But too good earnest, are the words avouch’d to thee; Nor apt to falsehood is the mouth of Jupiter, But brings to pass all promises. Hereupon reflect : Look round on all sides., and believe will-worshipping To wary wisdom is to be preferr’d never. Chorus. We think on our part that not out of season is The word of Hermes, who to quit will-worshipping And turn to wary wisdom is thy counsellor. Be ruled : the failure of the wise is infamous. Prometheus . With a known import his loud messages Come to my hearing : but a foe’s suffering By a foe maketh no disgrace for him. 72 PROMETHEUS BOUND. Up ! let a double-edged curl of lightning Be flung against me : fire and hurricane All the skies redden; And let a tempest come to deracinate Earth’s foundations : Let the marine floods’ breakers dissonant Merge the stars’-gates into one havoc all, And my lifted body perforce cast Into black hell adown, lent to Necessity’s Wrenching whirlwinds : To slay me still is he unable. Hermes . But among frenzied men alone hear we Such machinations, such-like language. For what is absent that makes madness ] What is he short of, to belie raving h However ye there, ye fellow-grievers In his adversity, get away speedily From this neighbourhood, ere grim bellowings Of thunder alarm ye to madness. Chorus. Speak some other word : give me a precept Thou canst get obey’d ; for unendurable Is the direction thou’st here blurted. PROMETHEUS BOUND. 73 To the poltroon’s part dost thou call us 1 Bear with him I must that which must be ; For my maxim is hating traitors, Nor amongst all taints Moves any one more my abhorrence. Hermes. But recollect then my forewarnings ; When folly traps you, chide not fortune, Nor against Jove speak ever hereafter For having drawn you Tow’rd a punishment unforeseeable. Ah no, you alone must yourselves blame, Who not on impulse, nor unadvisedly, But against evidence plunge insensate In a close net of infatuation. Prometheus. And in very deed, not word any more, Earth is quivering : Thunders rush along bellowing surge-like ; Lightnings flash abroad, jagged and fervent ; Whirlwinds gather up rolling dust-clouds ; Winds, as many as breathe, disporting, Like antagonists Make their opposite blasts a spectacle, 74 PROMETHEUS BOUND. And together churn skies and waters. Such an artillery, stirring terror up, Jove, who against me sends it, manifests. Hallow’d O Mother, and O thou welkin, That the common light round all earnest. What wrong ye behold me abiding ! THE END. Wyman Sr Sons, Printers , Great Queen Street, London, W.C. MR. SWINBURNE’S WORKS MR. SWINBURNE’S NEW POEM. This day, on toned paper, fcap. 8vo., cloth, price 3s. 6d. A Song of Italy. By Algernon Charles Swinburne. The Athenaeum, in a preliminary notice , remarks of this poem : — “ Seldom has such a chant been heard so full of glow, of strength, and colour This day, fcap. 8vo., 340 pages, price 9s. in cloth, Poems and Ballads. By Algernon Charles Swinburne. “ Wherever there is any kind of true genius, we have no right to drive it mad by ridicule or invective ; we must deal with it wisely, justly, fairly. Some of the pas- sages which have been selected as evidence of (the poet’s) plain speaking, have been wantonly misunderstood. The volume, as a whole, is neither profane nor indecent. A little more clothing in our uncertain climate might perhaps have been attended with advantage To us this volume, for the first time, con- clusively settles that Mr. Swinburne is not a mere brilliant rhetorician or melodious twanger of another man’s lyre, but authentically a poet.” — Fraser's Magazine , Nov. 1866. “ There is enough in the volume to have made the fortune of most members of his craft .” — The Scotsman. “ The outcry that has been made over his last published volume of * Poems and Ballads ’ is not very creditable to his critics Old Testament Poetry has fastened upon his imagination quite as strongly as the sublime fatalism of the old Greek dramatists. . . . There is a terrible earnestness about these books. . . . That a book thus dealing with a desire of the flesh should have been denounced as profligate because it does not paint the outside of the Sodom’s apple of like colour of the ashes that it shows within, says little indeed for the thoroughness of current criticism.” — Examiner. ** Coarse animalism, draped with the most seductive hues of art and romance. We will not analyze the poems ; we will not even pretend to give the reasons upon which our opinion is based. Eor sale by Newcomb & Co., Broadway .”— Albany Journal. “ The critics seem to be agreed in seizing upon what deserves reprobation, 2 without noticiug what deserves respect. In this way he has been either very blindly or very unfairly dealt with.” — Pall Mall Gazette. “The theatre of Mr. Swinburne is co-extensive with this knowledge and expe- rience. It will expand, and there is no fear of his being denied an audience, or crushed by a critique. He is more likely to realize the boast of Nelson, who finding himself unmentioned in the * Gazette,’ declared a day would come when he should have one for himself. We are not in the secret of his own defence, or his reappear- ance. He may or may not withdraw poems which have been impregnated by designing criticism with a pruriency which was not their own.” — Reader. “ It will be a sad day for English poetry when such volumes as this get read and praised by the better critics, yet the merit of some of the pieces— though by no means high — is greater than of anything heretofore published by this admiring friend of poor old Landor. Eor sale by Nichols & Noyes.” — Boston Commonwealth. “ This is a collection of miscellaneous pieces of poetry, &c., by that young and promising writer, Mr. Algernon Charles Swinburne. The work, originally brought out by Moxon & Co., has been reprinted by Carleton of this city in a very superior and tasteful style. Of the poems themselves, they are written in all the ardency of youth, but many of the pieces breathe forth a love of freedom, truth, and justice, in strong but truly poetic language.” — New York Watchman. “This is a famous book. The critics are not by any means unanimous in their estimate of Swinburne. Some laud him for * outspoken honesty, earnestness, poetic insight, truth, and beauty of expression,’ while others regard his poems as even of doubtful morality. That he is a true poet, a master of nervous English, and very bold, no one ought to deny. Whether his poetry is likely to do harm is another question. The ballad commencing — * If Love were what the rose is, And I were like the leaf,* which has lately gone the rounds of the papers, is in this volume, and many others of extraordinary merit as compositions.” — Richmond Dispatch , Va. “ No writer of modern times has excited so much interest as Algernon Charles Swinburne. Although a very young man, he has exhibited a maturity of intellect that has almost entirely disarmed the critics. The striking originality of his pro- ductions has astonished the literary world, and placed him unquestionably in the front rank of English poets. A recent edition of his * Poems and Ballads,’ how- ever, has subjected him to a more severe ordeal than he has yet met with, and has called forth from his own pen a defence which will be published in the second edition of his new volume. “ There is a music of strength in these poems, outspoken honesty, a sturdy love of freedom, earnestness, poetic insight, truth and beauty of expression, beyond anything attained to by other of the young poets of the day. In some of the poems are the passions of youth fearlessly expressed, and stirring depths that have been stirred hitherto by no poet in his youth.” — Philadelphia Age. “As our modern critics are very sensitive, the volume of poems was rather warmly denounced. The Moxons were alarmed, and copies were called in as fast as possible. Fortunately one fell in our way, and we read it through, with the light which the virtuous reviewers had flashed upon the book. We found scarcely a poem deserving the censures of the hyper-prudish press. Much was in the manly 3 style in which Landor would write about old Greek stories, much in 'the bold and nervous style in which any but an emasculated laureate would write about some of the middle age legends and romances. The poems seemed to be bold, manly, vigorous, with none of the effiminacies of Moore, the profanities of Shelley, or the suggestive pruriencies of many modern novelists. We could not help exclaiming, * Where’s the harm ? Why decry such poems ? * They may have the faults of fulness, the errors of youth, the warmth of passion, but are in no way worse than scores of the poems of half a century ago, and not half so bad as many of the novels of to-day. However, the censors prevailed, and the volume was withdrawn — only to be republished by Mr. J. Camden Hotten, who, as he, unlike Messrs. Moxon, does not sell Shelley’s works, has undertaken to give the present volume to the world.” — Birmingham Journal. “ All his poems are remarkable for their rhythmic beauty and wondrous wealth of language and exquisite imagery. Even when he has but little to say, his manner of saying that little is so musical that the melody charms us, and lingers in the memory like some sweet strain of music.” — New Haven Palladium . “ Any father who finds it in his household should at once consign it to the flames. For sale by Newcomb & Co., Broadway.” — Albany Journal. (Teanslatioit.) “ There is no form of verse which Swinburne does not handle with mastery. Many of his poems are the most lovely melodies in words. The English language can bardly boast greater triumphs than in some of Swinburne’s lyrics. We should like to see whether he will overcome the present pouting of criticism and the public : it is to be hoped that he will overcome it, and as soon as possible.” — Beilage zur ZuTcunft , 14th February, 1867. (Berlin.) In fcap. 8vo., cloth, price 6s., a new edition of Atalanta in Calydon : a Tragedy. By Algernon Charles Swinburne. “ He has produced a dramatic poem which abounds, from the first page to the last, in the finest constituents of poetry — in imagination, fancy, feeling, sentiment* passion, and knowledge of the human heart and soul, combined with a dominant mastery over every species of verse, from the stateliest pomp of epic metre to the fluent sweetness of song. . . . He has something of that creative force which all great poets have had, whether they were Greek, Italian, or English, — a native and inborn strength, which scholarship may mould but can never originate. . . . There are passages in his poem which seem to wring from the very roots of human experience the sharpest extract of our griefs.”— London Review, 8th April, 1865. “ Mr. Swinburne has judged well in his choice of a subject. The legend of Calydon is one of the most beautiful in the whole compass of the Greek mythology, fresh, simple, romantic, solemn, and pathetic, yet without any of those horrors which shock us in the stories of Thebes or Argos — no Jocasta, no Thyestes, but figures full of heroic truth and nobleness, standing out in the clear bright light of the early morning of Greece. ... A careful study of the Attic dramatists has enabled him to catch their manner, and to reproduce felicitously many of their 4 turns of expression. The scholar is struck every few lines by some phrase which he can fancy a direct translation from the Greek, while yet it is in its place both forcible and unaffected. . . . He is, indeed, never more happy than in painting nature, knowing and loving her well, and inspired by her beauty into a vivid force and fulness of expression.” — Saturday Review , 6th May, 1865. “ He is gifted with no small portion of the all-important divine fire, without which no man can hope to achieve poetic success ; he possesses considerable powers of description, a keen eye for natural scenery, and a copious vocabulary of rich yet simple English. . . . We must now part from our author with cordial congratulations on the success with which he has achieved so difficult a task.” — Times, June 6th, 1865. “ ‘ Atalanta in Calydon * is the work of a poet Let our readers say whether they often meet with pictures lovelier in themselves, or more truly Greek, than those in the following invocation to Artemis. . . . Many strains equal to the above in force, beauty, and rhythmical flow might be cited from the chorus. Those which set forth the brevity of man’s life, and the darkness which enfolds it, though almost irreverent in the impeachment of the gods, are singularly fine in expression. ... We yet know not to what poet since Keats we could turn for a representation at once so large in its design and so graphic in its particulars.” — Athenceum , April 1st, 1865. “ The choruses are so good that it is difficult to praise them enough. Were our space unlimited, we would transfer them without abridgment to our columns ; as it is not, we can only give a few extracts ; but we may fairly assume that every one who cares for poetry of a truly high order will make himself familiar with Mr. Swinburne’s drama. . . . As we listen to them they seem to set themselves to a strange but grand music, which lingers long on the ear.” — Reader , April 22nd, 1865. t( One grave error, which Mr. Swinburne has almost entirely avoided, is the use of thoughts or expressions which, current now, would be out of place in a tragedy of Greece. He has, with rare artistic feeling, let scarcely a trace appear of modern life. The poem is all alive with the life of a classic past. . . . The whole play is instinct with power of varied kinds.” — Examiner, July 15th, 1865. “ These lines are marked by that melancholy that always characterizes the poetry in proportion to the absence of faith. . . , Could he have faith, of which there is not a trace throughout the poem, except the miserable vacuum created by its absence, he might do wonders as a poet.” — The Tablet , August 12th, 1865. “ Hot the least remarkable and interesting pages of this volume are those to which the author has consigned a tribute of veneration to the memory of Walter Savage Landor, in two compositions of Greek elegiac verse. . . . It is evidently the produce, not of the tender lyrical faculty which so often waits on sensitive youth, and afterwards fades into the light of common day, nor even of the classical culture of which it is itself a signal illustration, but of an affluent and apprehensive genius, which, with ordinary care and fair fortune, will take a foremost place in English literature. . . . His abstinence from all overdrawn conceits is remark- able in a young poet of any time, and his careful avoidance of the shadowy border- land of metaphysics and poetry, in which so many versifiers of our own day take refuge from the open scrutiny of critical sunlight, deserves full praise and recog- nition.” — Edinburgh Review , July, 1865. 5 This day, fcap. 8vo. , cloth, price 7s. Chastelard : a Tragedy. By Algernon Charles Swin- BURNE. f ‘ The portraits of Mary and Chastelard are exaggerated, hut only as Michael Angelo’s heroic statues are. The consistent steady madness of Chastelard’ s pas- sion, which, mad as it is, lies deeper than madness, and, wild as it is, burns always without flame, is displayed in a way that is most masterly. As for the Queen, we are quite of opinion that Mr. Swinburne has brought that woman to light again. It will not do, perhaps, to peer too closely into her portrait as it lies in these pages ; if we do, we become uneasily conscious of blotchy workmanship, with lights too sudden, and shades too deep, and broken harmonies of colour. But close the book, and look at the portrait reflected from it into the nrnd, and none was ever painted of her so true. It is a portrait which painters and historians alike have only con- fused ; it awaited a poet’s hand to this day, and now we have got it. . . . The fact seems to be that Mr. Swinburne is less a poet than a dramatist ; but in any case it can never be denied that he is a true man of genius.” — Pall Mall Gazette , April 27th, 1866. “ We do not know when it has fallen to the lot of any poet to produce within one year two such plays as ‘Atalanta in Calydon’ and ‘Chastelard,’ — dramas’ con- ceived and written in two totally distinct styles, and with marked success in both. . . . He has earned a conspicuous name with singular quickness, and we trust that even greater triumphs lie before him in his onward path.” — London Review, December 9th, 1865. “The choruses in ‘Atalanta’ were astonishing for their imaginative insight, their richness of imagery, their depth of impassioned thought, the nervous supple- ness of their language, and the lyrical flow of their versification ; and many of the speeches of the characters were full of poetry and dramatic truth. In ‘ Chastelard,’ again, we have a splendid example of the poetry that lies in vehement and absorbing passion ; but there is some reason to fear that Mr. Swinburne is wanting in the higher beauty of moral dignity and sweetness.” — London Review, Dec. 30th, 1865. “We can only say that it abounds in passages of great poetic merit, and the passion of love is described with all that delicacy and vividness that can only be found in the writings of a poet endowed with extraordinary genius. Mr. Swinburne has well comprehended the character of Mary Stuart, and she is made to stand before the reader a reality, her nature being wonderfully well exhibited. Other characters are represented with marvellous distinctness, and give to the tragedy interest and vitality.” — Public Opinion, December 16th, 1865. “ The picture with which this burst concludes, though too much elaborated, has undeniable grandeur. We could point out passages which, in a dramatic point of view, are yet finer. Those given to Mary Beaton — the only touching character in the play — often reach the height of tragic intensity. Nor is it to be disputed that Mr. Swinburne shows at times a keen insight into the subtleties of human motive, but his chief characters are out of the pale of our sympathy; besides being inhe- rently vicious ; the language will offend not only those who have reverence, but those who have taste.” — Athenaeum, December 23rd, 1865. “ There are two parts of the play deserving of special praise,— the second act, F 6 and the closing scenes of the fifth. It is in these, and more particularly in the latter, that Mr. Swinburne displays a combination of dramatic and poetic power beyond what is seen in anything that his pen has yet produced. . . . Were it not for their exquisite elegance of expression, thesS constant exhibitions of passion would deserve severe reprobation. .’ . . Regarding the work as a whole, we must thank Mr. Swinburne for a dramatic poem of great power, careful elabora- tion of plot, artistic disposition of scenes ; for admirable descriptions of human emotion and passion ; for terse, forcible, yet sweet expression, and a generally scrupulous melody of rhythm.” — Header , December 2nd, 1865. “Mr. Swinburne has written a tragedy, which not only is one of the most remarkable . productions of modern days, but which in originality of conception and boldness of treatment has never been surpassed.” — Sunday Times , Dec. 3rd, 1865. “ Here, in his new poem of * Chastelard,’ is Mr. Algernon Swinburne writing French chansons of which Chastelard himself, or Ronsard, might have been proud. So good are they that by many they are imagined to be merely quotations, tran- scripts from the original French author ; but there is no doubt they are Mr. Swin- burne’ s own composition. Here are two, which are exquisite in taste, feeling, and spirit.” — Morning Star , December 25th, 1865. “Here and there occur passages which we unhesitatingly affirm are not sur- passed in the language.” — Liverpool Albion , January 6th, 1866. “ Mr. Swinburne has produced a poem which many may dislike but which none can contemn, which many will lay down unread but which few will read once only. . . . The scene in the Queen’s chamber is very beautiful, but ingeniously wicked as the rest. . . . For dexterity of fence, both in feeling and language, this scene may rank with the masterpieces of our older drama. . . . Mr. Swin- burne’s future career must be an object of much interest to all who estimate aright the worth and weight of British literature in the intellectnal and moral history of mankind.” — Fortnightly Review, April 15th, 1866. “ A masterpiece of literary art, whether contemplated as the conception of character, ideals of love and heroism, treatment of a grand and moving theme, majesty, beauty, and purity of style, or lesson to the heart and mind.” — The Albion, December 23rd, 1865. “ The story is vaguely and ineffectively presented. There is little to relieve the repulsive character of the whole tone of the play ; it dwells pertinaciously and too warmly upon scenes which are neither noble, edifying, nor decent.” — Boston Daily Advertiser, December 14th, 1865. “ We have but re-echoed the judgment of all competent critics, in saying that Swinburne rightfully ranks with the few great poets of this and of other ages.” — New York Weekly Review, December 9th, 1865. “ The sustained and elastic strength of the fourth act, in which the turns and windings of Mary’s will as Chastelard’s death are drawn out, — her perplexity, ruthlessness, contempt for a weak man, and for a cruel unknightly man, fear of pftblic scorn, remo r so for her love, vindictive bitterness against Darnley, all chasing one another over her mind, with the subtlest changes, — make one of the most superb scenes for which a drama of character gives room.” — Saturday Review , May 26th, 1866. UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA HI III III 111 ■III II CO CM O 072020941 J